


Thank You for Your Time

by m_meagher



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Episode: s07e01 The Ticket, F/M, Santos Campaign, The West Wing - Freeform, The West Wing Season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:07:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27807301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m_meagher/pseuds/m_meagher
Summary: Josh Lyman has just turned Donna Moss down for a position in the Santos campaign—it's a decision he stands by, but that doesn't mean his emotions are on the same page.
Relationships: Josh Lyman/Donna Moss
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	Thank You for Your Time

“I’ve got an airplane hangar out there filled with 500 strangers looking to me for direction. I’ve got a candidate who doesn’t trust any of them, and frankly, neither do I. And if you think I don’t miss you every day...” Josh trailed off, his breath hitching at the uncharacteristically vulnerable admission. After a stunned beat of silence, Donna’s neck wilted into her shoulders, and those expressive cornflower eyes pooled over with tears.

“I can make some calls,” Josh offered weakly, but Donna just raised her palm in one firm, resolute motion to halt him mid-sentence. “Thank you for your time,” she choked out, then bolted from the Santos-McGarry headquarters without so much as a backward glance at the man who owned her heart for those past eight years. How could Donna Moss have known, as she strangled back the tears in a last-ditch show of dignity, that Josh Lyman was frozen in the doorway of his office, memorizing the swish of her torso and stride of her legs as she exited his life once again?

When that pale sandy hair was no longer in view, Josh eased the door shut with a pained resignation and slouched into the chair behind his desk. He traced the grooves in his forehead, absently wondering if they had always been that deep, or if this was a new development in the months since Donna had spurned him for the Russell campaign.

“Thank you for your time.” So formal and rote, cool and detached. After two presidential terms at one another’s side, this was all she could muster in response to his confession? What of their long—albeit complicated—history together? Had it meant something, or did it evaporate into thin air when they both left the White House? Did it ever cause her sleepless nights, like it so often did for him? Josh’s throat constricted at the abrupt, unwelcome rush of memories.

She had been his constant. His accomplice. His person. When Josh lost his father on the Bartlet for America trail, Donna became his reminder to still celebrate the wins. After the shooting in Rosslyn and his slow descent into PTSD, it was Donna who anchored Josh back to reality. So when _her_ life hung in the balance at a hospital ward in Germany, the brash and indomitable Deputy Chief-of-Staff allowed himself to shake off that bravado and acknowledge the truth. He loved this woman. He could barely function without her.

But then she chose to desert him and withdrew behind enemy lines. To watch Donna’s newfound skills as an operative emerge next to Bob Russell and Will Bailey was nothing short of insufferable. Did she resent him so much that she would deliberately conceal her talent and intellect from him all those years—or had Josh simply not bothered to notice? Whatever the case, he wanted her on Team Santos. He wanted her competence and discretion and razor-sharp wit.

Josh wanted her calm, sensitive poise to balance his own rabid ferocity. He wanted her back as the right hand to his left. He wanted her, period. But hiring Donna was out of the question, the seasoned campaigner in him knew. Her on-the-record jabs at Santos’ national defense and education reform plans might turn her into a liability on the ticket. Josh could not give the press any more ammunition to side-eye his band of renegades. 

Personal feelings aside, it was too risky a move. But when he explained this, she almost cried right there on the spot, and Josh would not forgive himself for that. “I’m done,” he moaned under his breath. “She’ll never again see the depth of how I feel.” So with a broken swallow and a leaden shrug, Josh Lyman returned Donna’s file to the drawer it came from, sealing away his emotions in the process. Well, for the afternoon at least—they would revisit him at night, and under the secrecy of darkness, he would love her until morning. 

“Thank you for your time,” he would murmur in the silence. “Thanks for the bowties you straightened before each state dinner and inaugural ball. Thanks for the overtime you didn’t complain about when I paged you from a date to come in after-hours. Thanks for the lunches you brought me while I recovered from my bullet wound. Thanks for the debates you indulged me in as we paced the halls together, our mouths and movements both in sync. You understand me like no one else can. You have from the moment you traipsed into my office and then made yourself invaluable. Thank you, Donna...for all your time.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Aaron Sorkin created such a masterful dynamic in these two woefully—however, endearingly—inept lovebirds. That conversation between them in "The Ticket" was excruciating to watch, and of course, neither would allow their true feelings to show. But if we had seen Josh's reaction to Donna walking out, this is how I envision his inner turmoil would play itself out.


End file.
